Swansea lettings agent Hannah McCartan, who runs McCartan Lettings, has launched a new business, The Landlord Community, to provide education and support for landlords.

The online community’s first offering is a new course, Compliance Training for Welsh Landlords, which is free to anyone who signs up to The Landlord Community. It briefs landlords on all the new requirements brought in by The Renting Homes (Wales) Act 2016, which commenced fully on December 1 2022.

Topics covered include rent increases, serving notice, succession rights, written statements, new property safety standards including electrical safety, carbon monoxide alarms, smoke alarms, and how to start a tenancy.

Crucially – with an important deadline looming – it also covers how to create a ‘written statement’ and includes the option to purchase a downloadable universal written statement.

Landlords in Wales have until May 31 to issue any tenants whose tenancies existed prior to December 1 2023 with a written statement setting out the terms of the occupation contracts to which all tenancies automatically converted on December 1 2022.

If a landlord fails to provide a written statement by May 31, their tenants will be entitled to claim compensation from them in the form of 1 day’s rent for each day they are left without a written statement. The landlord will also be unable to serve notice on their tenants for six months, after which they have to give six months’ notice.

While the Welsh Government has provided a model written statement, it will need to be adapted for most tenancies to reflect the terms of each agreement that existed prior to the change – and this can be a complicated process.

Hannah decided to make it easier by creating her course, which includes the option to purchase a universal written statement. In doing this, she has drawn on more than two decades’ experience in lettings. She set up her own company at the age of 26 and has worked with tens of thousands of tenants and landlords since then. She is also a landlord trainer – experience that made her well-equipped to create this new course.

“I know how landlords are feeling right now because I’m a landlord too,” she says. “With the written statement deadline looming, many landlords are still confused about what they need to do and how to do it. This course demystifies The Renting Homes (Wales) Act 2016, helping landlords to ensure they’re fully compliant – and it will give them everything they need to be able to issue a written statement by the May 31 deadline. The training, actions and tips I provide in this course are the ones I’m using for my own properties and for my own agency.

“My mission is to help all landlords with their compliance training needs, in a no nonsense easy to implement way.”